Deciduous holly

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Deciduous holly flowers

Deciduous holly buds

Deciduous holly

Deciduous holly leaves

Deciduous holly fruit

Deciduous holly habit

Deciduous holly fruit

Deciduous holly bark

Morphology

Trunk

Dioecious; stems or trunk erect; branches unarmed; bark light brown to gray, smooth except for warty lenticels; wood light yellow, hard.

Twigs

Light gray, flexible, glabrous; leaf scars half-round; pith yellowish brown to tan; buds grayish brown, ovoid, .05 to .06 inch, apex obtuse to acute, scales glabrous.

Leaves

Deciduous, alternate, simple; petiole .08 to .28 inch; blade obovate to spatulate, 1.2 to 3 inches long, .4 to 1.2 inch wide, base attenuate to wedge-shaped; margins crenulate to serrulate, rounded to obtuse; lower surfaces light green, pubescent, especially along veins, upper surfaces dark green, glabrous.

Flowers

Inflorescences terminal on short shoots, staminate fascicles, 2-12-flowered, pistillate fascicles 26-flowered; pedicels .16 to .4 inch. Flowers unisexual, radially symmetric; sepals connate proximally, lobes ovate, .02 to .03 inch; petals connate proximally, lobes white to light yellow, ovate to obovate, .08 to .16 inch; staminate: calyx and corolla lobes 4-5; stamens 4-5; pistillate: calyx and corolla lobes (4-)5, staminodes (4-)5; pistils 1, ovary superior, 2-5-locular; style absent or minute; stigma capitate.

Fruit

October-November; drupes, bright red to orange, nearly globose, .24 to .35 inch long, .2 to .3 inch wide; stones 4, tan, angular, .16 to .2 inch long, .08 to .14 inch wide, longitudinally ribbed.

Ecology

Habitat

Floodplain forests and woodlands, swamps, stream banks, glades, rocky woodlands and ridges.

Distribution

Southeast 1/4 of Kansas